


Idealove

by vanyahargreeves



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Arguing, Fluff, Happy Ending, Love Confessions, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 16:06:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13955139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanyahargreeves/pseuds/vanyahargreeves
Summary: Edward is smitten, and Jonathan is unconvinced.





	Idealove

When Jonathan snags Edward’s chin, Edward’s lips part like petals in the sun, and his breaths come huskier. Edward blooms under Jonathan’s shadow: first his neck, under Jonathan’s influence, but followed by his shoulders, chest, and a steadily lightening bounce under his heels.

If only Edward could speak to him as sweetly as the glaze over his eyes shimmers. In all fairness, though, Jonathan rarely gives him a chance to.

He swipes his thumb upward to rest on Edward’s bottom lip, and he swears that Edward is going to suck it into his mouth. He may as well. He pants like an animal under the new sensation, and looks ready to pounce, too. Edward’s eyes linger in their trance, though, abandoning the instinct his body reflects. He is not afraid of Jonathan, and if Jonathan were as naïve as Edward he might believe he loved him for it.

“Edward,” Jonathan sighs. He clenches his free fist so hard when Edward whines that he feels a brittle nail break. “Edward,” he repeats, firmer as to grab Edward’s attention rather than his arousal. “Why do you want me?” Edward’s eyes widen indignantly, and Jonathan has to swallow a roar of frustration because he’s about to say it again.

“I love you.”

Edward will only melt if Jonathan tightens his grip around his chin, so instead he releases him. He droops, suitably chastened. He is just as breathtaking now as he had been squirming, Jonathan realizes, and goosepimples pop about his body. Beauty does not a worthy man make, he reminds himself. “No, Eddie,” he coos, straining to sound appreciative of the sentiment. “You don’t. You can’t love me because you don’t know me.” The Riddler, though victorious in every battle of the mind, has thus far proven useless in matters of the heart.

“Let me, then!” Jonathan’s is not the only patience wearing thin. Edward is wild in his fury. “You are a fool. You condemn my lifestyle like a bumbling, prudish god, yet even after I’ve given up all that has been comfort to me you continue to disrespect me with this nonsense.”

Jonathan rolls his eyes. Edward’s theatrics are often amusing, but always unwelcome. “Anything you’ve given up isn’t half as valuable as the time I’ve spent arguing with you over this.”

Scathed, Edward sputters. “Why, you – I don’t _believe_ – I quit drinking, Jonathan! Not a drop, for a _month_. I got rid of everything, even the wine. Straight down the toilet. All because _you_ ,” Edward points accusingly at Jonathan, “said it was distasteful.”

“Congratulations,” Jonathan drawls, “you’ve trudged through a month’s worth of life without abusing alcohol. Some of us have been doing that for decades, you know.” Guilt creeps into his chest even before he catches Edward’s lips tighten into a line. “Sorry,” he mutters, “sorry.”

“You should be.”

“I know it isn’t – ”

“It isn’t easy,” Edward interrupts, “but I did it to impress you.” He spreads his hands in exasperation. “That’d be enough for anyone else, you know. Perhaps you are being too stubborn.”

Jonathan smiles wryly. “Perhaps that is why you like me.” He can’t get a straight answer out of Edward by asking him, but he certainly can by challenging him.

He doesn’t anticipate Edward’s delicate features twisting in outrage, or him stamping his foot. “No, that’s why I _hate_ loving you! You’re stubborn and you don’t listen to me and you’re cryptic and you’re demanding!”

Jonathan’s does _too_ listen to Edward. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t fall asleep counting the riddles Edward told that day, and the taunting voice in his head when he does something stupid wouldn’t sound quite so much like him. He has to gnaw the inside of his cheek to keep from refuting him, though, because he’s so close to getting Edward to _say it_.

“Why do you want me, then, Edward? If I’m nothing but a strain on that incredible intellect of yours, why pursue me?”

“Because you – ” Edward groans in resignation, and Jonathan savors a brief moment of triumph. Finally! “Because you’re the only man who’s ever made me want to grow,” Edward mumbles, gaze fixed on the pointed toes of his shoes. “You are certainly not the first to have issue with my vices. I am proud. Obviously. Too proud to change for any one person. But the ultimatums you presented were…more difficult than those past. Thus far, I have chosen you above all else. It is quite unlike me.” Edward coughs, clearly out of discomfort rather than need. “Okay?”

There must be hearts dancing in Jonathan’s eyes. How lovely! What he had thought was a childish need to crack him like a code was a genuine want for his company.

Jonathan, while smitten, is unconvinced that a romance with Edward is a safe idea. Everything about Edward sets him on edge, but nothing more so than his prodigious ego. What when he decides – _realizes, more like_ , Jonathan’s own, depressive psyche hisses – that he deserves better than Jonathan? Edward’s attachment to Jonathan _now_ is adorable, but Jonathan is unsure he could handle watching it shatter if Edward was pulled towards another; he can’t even stop the bitterness blossoming in his belly at the thought.

More frighteningly, though, what when Edward blames Jonathan for his complicity in denying Edward the very best? Loathe as he is to admit it, Edward’s wrath rivals his own. Edward thrives in mystery, and Jonathan could never control what he did not know.

Perhaps he can still get Edward to leave of his own accord, before any of that finds the chance to happen. Jonathan, of course, still has a trick up his sleeve. “What of your other lovers, then, Edward? Do they know how you feel about me? Or are you keeping them on the back burner in case you leave here empty-handed?”

“Aw, shucks.” Edward sticks his bottom lip out in false sadness. “You thought you caught me there, huh? No, Jon, they’re history. All of them. And if I do leave you empty-handed, I’ll be staying that way, because no one was very happy about it.” He chuckles. “I’m really – ”

Jonathan groans. “Quite a catch, I know.” He hadn’t been counting on Edward dumping everyone before he even gave in. But there was no way! No way Edward had given up all of his hot, young, and glamorous paramours for _Jonathan_. Jonathan is broke, middle-aged, and average-looking at best. It really is beginning to seem that Edward actually likes Jonathan for his _personality_. How unlike him, indeed.

Edward takes advantage of the quiet to close the distance between them, so that he can rest his dark hands on Jonathan’s chest. He digs his nails in lightly, just enough to scrape a shudder out of Jonathan. Though Edward has to incline his chin to meet Jonathan’s eyes, it feels quite like Edward is looking down on him.

“Jonathan,” Edward murmurs. The uncharacteristic hush of his voice drips heat over Jonathan like hot wax. “I tire of playing cat and mouse. It’s terribly boring – I always win.” Jonathan is tired, too. Arguing with Edward is almost as exhausting as resisting him. Edward had diligently taken the scraps of protest Jonathan tossed him and begun building a better man. Not perfect, Jonathan knows, but better, and even that result is unprecedented. And he’d done it for Jonathan. “Give me _something_.”

Jonathan clears his throat. “The things you want…are not in my nature.” He knows the cracks in his resolve are visible in the sweat dripping down his nose. “This is not going to go the way you think.”

Edward doesn’t smile, but his jaw unclenches and the lines on his face soften. He slides his hands from Jonathan’s chest to rest on his waist and leans forward until his forehead brushes Jonathan’s collarbone. “No,” he admits, breath warm on Jonathan’s throat, “I suspect it won’t.” His sincerity makes Jonathan’s gut twist affectionately.

“Will you force it to?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Edward pulls back to look Jonathan in the eye again. “I’ll be too busy dreaming of you and those baby blues,” he quips with a wink, “and I fear that you’ll kill me if I cross you.”

Now that was a revelation. “You fear me?”

Edward scoffs, but his fingers on Jonathan’s midriff are fond. “Indeed. I fear that you will interrogate me here until my knees give out and I collapse. And…” Edward bites his lip. “I fear a life that stops me touching you like this again.” God, why Jonathan?

Edward could torment anyone else; tormented near _everyone_ else, until Jonathan scolded him for it. It’d been different the other times. Edward had come to him demanding acknowledgment, and Jonathan was remarkable at dodging confrontation. It’d been so easy to brush him off then. But this was _Jonathan’s_ approach, _Jonathan’s_ plan to quash Edward’s incessant affections by way of reason, and Edward _still_ had him by the throat!

Dangerous, is what it is, but it’s so hard to watch Edward gaze up at him like he’s the moon and stars and think _bad_.

Edward huffs at Jonathan’s prolonged silence. “You wouldn’t know a good thing – ”

“Kiss me,” Jonathan interrupts, “now, please,” and if Edward is off-put by his brusqueness it doesn’t show when he snatches Jonathan’s lips up and takes his breath with them.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thanks so much for reading this far!
> 
> This is the first fic, for this fandom or any, that I've ever completed or shared! I hope I could make someone happy :-)
> 
> I kinda took the idea from Riddler's issue of the Joker's Asylum comics that Edward is not the best at acting on, or even recognizing, love, and ran with that. The original plan was an unrequited love fic where Jon mega rejects him but I am not in the business of breaking my own heart, so this piece was born!
> 
> Have a great day!


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